If it seems that the days are getting shorter; they are and have been since the June summer solstice. But the earth recently recorded its shortest day for a completely different and unusual reason: the earth spins faster. Scientists have found the development puzzling, though they have some theories about why it happens and what impact it might have on our lives.
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June 29, 2022 was 1.59 milliseconds shorter than the average day, scientist Leonid Zotov told CBS News. The normal length of a day is 24 hours, or 86,400 seconds. But in recent years, Earth’s rotation has increased, shortening milliseconds on some days. “From 2016 the Earth started to speed up,” said Zotov, who published a study last March on what might be causing the changes in Earth’s rotation. “This year is spinning faster than 2021 and 2020.”
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This increased rotation is not shortened every day, only occasionally. But if it continues, the primary way of measuring time on Earth, a universal and highly accurate method known as atomic time, may have to change. A negative split second may need to be added, in which the clocks would simply jump one second. “Since we cannot change the hands of the clock bound to the rotation of the Earth, we adjust the scale of the atomic clock,” said Zotov.ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb.
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But not all scientists are in favor of the second negative jump. In fact, Meta engineers Oleg Obleukhov and Ahmad Byagowi recently wrote a blog post criticizing the idea. They said it could cause serious problems in the technology, such as data corruption. The concept has never been tested.
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Some scientists theorize about Earth’s tides. Others think that the constant melting and freezing of the ice caps is causing the Earth’s rotation to speed up and slow down.
“It’s all about the law of conservation of momentum that applies to our planet Earth. Every atom on the planet contributes to the momentum of the Earth’s angular velocity as a function of its distance from the Earth’s axis of rotation Obleukhov and Byagowi told CBS. . “So once things are moving, the earth’s angular velocity can vary.”
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“This phenomenon can be visualized by simply thinking of a spinning figure skater, who manages angular velocity by controlling their arms and hands,” they said. “As they extend the arms, the angular velocity decreases, conserving the skater’s momentum. As soon as the skater puts the arms back in, the angular velocity increases. The same thing happens here at this point because of the increased temperature on Earth. Ice caps melt and plume. to increase angular velocity.”
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In 2020, the planet experienced 28 of its shortest days in the last 50 years. The United Nations-affiliated International Telecommunication Union has begun adding occasional leap seconds in June or December. The first second jump was added in 1972, and 26 have been added since then.
According to Ars Technica, during a split second, the clock goes from 23:59:59 to 23:59:60 to 00:00:00. The middle “second tab” has caused technology problems in the past: a second tab added in 2012 caused crashes at Reddit, Gawker and Australian airline Qantas. In 2017, a leap second toppled Cloudflare.